The present invention relates to a method of placing a mark for setting up a control job for controlling the operation of a copying machine or the like in a mark column on a job control sheet and canceling such a mark thus placed, and the present invention relates also to a mark recognizing device which recognizes the set-up and cancellation of a mark for a control job.
It has hitherto been known to those persons skilled in the art that there is an available technique which reflects a consideration for enabling the operator to finish a series of copying operations, without constantly attending on the copying machine or the like, by placing marks on mark columns on a mark sheet to indicate such control job items as the required number of copies, the desired image density, and the desired magnification or reduction of the images which the operator wants to have an image processing system like as a copying machine or a facsimile machine to perform, having a mark recognizing device recognize the marks placed on the mark sheet to identify the required control operations as indicated thereon, and then causing a copying machine or the like to perform the copying operations as required.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,528, which is cited here as an example for this type of equipment discloses a technique which is applied by the steps of an operator placing marks with a pencil as appropriate in the selected ones of a plural number of mark columns set in correspondence with various control jobs as printed on a mark sheet, thus preparing a job control sheet for the job to be executed, and setting such a job control sheet, together with a bundle of original documents, on an automatic document feeding device, and causing an optical scanner to read the particulars of the marks indicated on the job control sheet as it comes transported by the automatic document feeding device, and thus causing the copying machine to perform the control operations corresponding to the control jobs respectively indicated in the mark columns on the job control sheet. A similar technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Hei. 2-8171, which discloses a method comprising the steps of forming many square-shaped mark columns on a programming sheet and setting up control jobs by placing marks with a pencil in the selected mark columns on the sheet.
In the meantime, a method of canceling a control job once set up with a mark entered in a mark column on a job control sheet is disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Sho. 51-144127, which discloses a technique consisting in pasting a white color piece of paper in a lozenge shape or a rectangle shape over a mark column on a job control sheet with a mark once entered.
Also, Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Hei. 2-178678, discloses a technique for preparing a job control sheet, with bar codes printed by means of a printer in accordance with the result of a selection made of a control program out of control programs which are put on display on a screen of a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) unit and indicate the operations which the operator desires to have a copying machine or the like perform.
Additionally, the color of the marking positions or the like on a mark sheet to be used as a job control sheet should be differentiated from the color of the writing tool, such as a pencil in a black color, and a mark sheet printed in a special ink or the like is used.
According to mark placing methods like those which are respectively described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,528 and Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Hei. 2-8171, the method to be employed for canceling any control job for which a mark has been placed by mistake by the operator is to erase the trace of a mark entered with a pencil in a mark column by canceling it with a rubber eraser or the like. Thus, a trace of such a correction tends to remain on the mark column on the job control sheet, and, to make the matters worse, the rubber eraser tends to leave rubber dust on the paper, which causes the problem that the mark recognizing device gains a mistaken recognition that the control job has not been canceled.
The mark placing and canceling method according to the invention described in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Sho. 51-144127, which overcomes this disadvantage, still leaves the problem that the correcting job is troublesome because the method consists in pasting a piece of paper on a mark column in which a mistaken entry has been made.
On the other hand, the mark placing and canceling method according to Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Hei. 2-178678 permits an easy and ready correction of a control program in the course of the preparation of a control program in conversation with the CRT display unit, but still presents the problem that it does not permit any simple and easy correction of an error in case an error is found in a control program after it is thus prepared and printed in the form of a job control sheet because a correction in such a case requires that the control program should be made once again in conversation with the CRT display unit.
Moreover, a job control sheet is provided with mark entry columns printed in a color different from the color of a pencil or the like which the user employs in placing such a mark, the job control sheet presents a problem in that the sheet cannot be produced by printing it readily with a usual monochromatic printer and further that a job control sheet prepared in this manner will usually cause difficulty in an optical reaction of this part when such a job control sheet is read with an image scanner in a copying machine or the like. It follows from this that it is necessary to print the job control sheet separately, which causes the problem that such a procedure results in an increase in the cost.